Light airs drifting..

Well that was a bit different to two days ago!

First the tides are building (in magnitude) fast - at 4.43m that's a quarter of a metre more water than when I went out just 2 days ago (the 'Buck' moon is in full chat at the moment), and second, the wind had shifted 180' - we had a NW'ly (ish)!

Anyway - 14:27 HT and I was on the boat getting ready by 11:00 (feet got a bit muddy, but it was 3.5 hours before high😏). The forecast was to build later to a solid F4, but when I got on the boat it was pretty light except that every now and again a strong gust would come through...  they do say you should do it the moment you think of it, so I decided to put a light reef in the main while on the mooring, saves faffing later..

Just shy of half past 11, with the main still up, I dropped the mooring and headed for the ditch..

Lots and lot of water sloshing about, and the wind proved fitful and all over the place - rolled out some genoa but it wasn't doing much as I needed the engine on to make pace against tide, which then cancelled out any benefit from the breeze..  basically the wind wasn't pushing me hard enough to counter tide! 😁

By the time we got to Sweare Deep the wind was beginning to settle in F2 territory, yet every now and again one of those F4 gusts would come through, and the wind was also shifting though about 10 degrees either side of NW so getting on a run as we came round the corner into the main channel by Beacon was a pain..  genoa almost constantly flapping but I managed to get on a goosewing for 15 minutes or so ...

..before giving up when the wind shifted again, so rounded up, put the engine on and motored back to Sweare Deep while I took the reef out of the main, turned, and had another go..

Better but not brilliant, but having managed to get past Marker I decided enough was enough, and as lovely as it was, a beer beckoned.. 😁

Log:

Distance: 6.09 (cumulative total in the mileage tab at the top)
Wind (Speed; Direction): F2 gusting F4 ; NW
Sail Plan: Full/reefed main and full genoa
Speed (Max/average in knots): 4.7 / 2.1